On Tuesday, the Supervisory Council of Los Angeles voted unanimously to spend $5 million on the improvement of the Law on affordable housing. First and foremost, the members of the Council want to develop an Ordinance that forbids landlords to refuse to rent to people using vouchers under Section 8 of the act.
Supervisor Sheila Kuel believes that more needs to be done to comply and extension of the statutes for many decades. Discrimination in the field of homeownership exacerbates the housing crisis and homelessness, allowing landlords to refuse to rent to families who are willing and able to pay for housing. Federal law on fair housing was adopted in 1968, but supervisor mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-authored this motion, said that discrimination in housing is still thriving.
Discrimination in housing based solely on an applicant’s source of income, like Section 8 vouchers, is exacerbating our homelessness crisis by allowing landlords to deny housing to families who are fully able to pay for housing. https://t.co/nmpEDJ5czQ
— Sheila Kuehl (@SheilaKuehl) January 17, 2019
Under Section 8, low income families can benefit from state assistance in the form of vouchers to pay rent. In 2016 76% of homeowners in Los Angeles refused to accept such vouchers. This happens in conditions when, for example, in 2017 for every available rental apartment had 4 low-income families. Now the demand is growing, but the landlords still leery of people who get government subsidies.
The law on affordable housing prevents humiliation on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, marital status or origin, but does not cover discrimination based on source of income on rent. California law considers the item, but does not include the vouchers for Section 8.
In addition to the creation of the resolution, Council members will consider other options to combat discrimination. For example, the expansion program for the poor, or the acquisition of property for affordable housing. The first step is carrying out research on the improvement of the entire district to determine where need it most.
Residents who are faced with discrimination by landlords, can complain to the hot line of the center of protection of housing rights at (800) 477-5977 or online www.hrc-la.org.
